The leaves are submersed or floating, narrowly linear to ovate, not lobed.

[4] It is native to the Colombia, Venezuela, and every US state along the coast from Massachusetts to Louisiana.

[4][5] It has also been reported as naturalized in Great Britain on just three occasions; only one of these is recent and it appears to have become extinct by 2010.

[6] It grows primarily in shallow brackish water along the seacoast, in marshes, estuaries, etc.

It is listed as special concern in Connecticut,[7] as endangered in Massachusetts, as rare in Pennsylvania, and as historical in Rhode Island.